System and method for providing chat-based customer callbacks

ABSTRACT

A system for providing chat-based customer callbacks, wherein a callback application server transmits prompts and receives requests for customer callbacks, an interaction manager determines agent availability and arranges callback handling, and a session management server initiates callbacks, and methods for providing chat-based customer callbacks using the system of the invention.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/532,001, titled “UNIFIED CROSS CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS” andfiled on Nov. 4, 2014, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/659,902, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDINGA CALLBACK CLOUD” and filed on Oct. 24, 2012, now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 8,938,221, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/479,870, titled “MANAGING, DIRECTING, ANDQUEUING COMMUNICATION EVENTS USING IMAGE TECHNOLOGY”, and filed on May24, 2012, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,055,149, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/320,517,titled “MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR ESTABLISHING AUTOMATED CALLBACK” and filed on Jan. 28, 2009, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,213,911,the specification of each of which are hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/532,001, titled “UNIFIED CROSS CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS” andfiled on Nov. 4, 2014, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/659,902, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDINGA CALLBACK CLOUD” and filed on Oct. 24, 2012, now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 8,938,221, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/446,758, titled “COMMUNICATION DEVICE FORESTABLISHING CALL BACK” and filed on Apr. 13, 2012, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,792,866, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/320,517, titled “MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE FORESTABLISHING AUTOMATED CALL BACK” and filed on Jan. 28, 2009, now issuedas U.S. Pat. No. 8,213,911, the specifications of each of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of contact center customerrelations, and more particularly to the field of providing customercallbacks to users via chat-based interactions.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Many businesses use groups of service representatives for communicatingwith clients who initiate communications with the business, such as bytelephone calls. To most efficiently use the time and skills of eachservice representative, the service representatives may be organizedinto groups based on a skill set. For example, the groupings may bebased on the representative's ability to handle client issues such asthe opening of new accounts, billing issues and customer service issueson existing accounts.

Typically, if a client calls such a business, voice prompt menu choicesenable the calling client to identify the issue for which the clientrequires service and the client is then queued for a service agentcapable of handling the identified issue. As such, it is expected thatclients who identify the purpose of their call as a “billing issue” willbe queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle billing issues. Similarly, it is expected that clientswho identify the purpose of their call as a “customer service issue”will be queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle customer service issues.

There are problems with existing communications systems, such as contactcenters, including the following two problems. First, the voice promptmenus that are used to channel callers to the queue for the appropriategroup of service agents are exacerbating to a client at best. It takessignificant time to navigate the layered menus of voice prompts.

Second, waiting on-hold while the telephone connection is maintained inqueue for connection to a service agent is also exacerbating to a clientat best.

In an effort to reduce customer exacerbation caused by having tomaintain a connection while on-hold in queue, secondary queue systemshave been developed. A typical secondary queue system obtains atelephone number at which the calling client can be reached when aservice representative is available (i.e., a call back number). Theclient disconnects, and then, at the proper time, a call back systemestablishes a connection to the client utilizing the call back numberand couples the client to an available representative without waitingon-hold in queue. One exemplary system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,563,921 to Williams et al. which is commonly assigned with the presentapplication.

While such a system may make the experience of waiting for a connectionto a service representative slightly less exasperating, it does notaddress the inconvenience of having to navigate an irritatingly slow andusually complicated voice prompt menu to enter the queue.

What is needed is a system and various methods for providing a callbackcloud and related services that overcome the limitations of the priorart noted above.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice,various systems and methods for providing chat-based customer callbacks.

According to a preferred embodiment, a system for providing chat-basedcustomer callbacks is disclosed, comprising: a callback applicationserver comprising at least a processor, a memory, and a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the programming instructions, when operating on theprocessor, cause the processor to: transmit an interactive prompt to achat session, the prompt comprising an option for a user to request acallback; receive a callback request from the chat session, the callbackrequest comprising at least an indicia of a specific callback providerfrom whom a callback is requested, the callback request furthercomprising an indicia of when a callback should be made; direct thecallback request to an interaction manager; an interaction managercomprising at least a processor, a memory, and a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the programming instructions, when operating on theprocessor, cause the processor to: determine callback availability foragents in a contact center, the callback availability being based on thestatus of a current interaction queue at the contact center and theindicia of when a callback should be made; select an agent to be usedfor the callback, the agent being selected based on the determinedavailability; direct a session management server to initiate a callback;a session management server comprising at least a processor, a memory,and a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory andoperating on the processor, wherein the programming instructions, whenoperating on the processor, cause the processor to: perform a callbackat a specified time and using a specified agent.

According to another preferred embodiment, a method for providingchat-based customer callbacks is disclosed, comprising the steps of:transmitting, using a callback application server, an interactive promptto a chat session, the interactive prompt comprising an option torequest a callback; receiving a callback request from the chat session,the callback request comprising an indicia of when a callback should bemade; determining, using an interaction manager, callback availabilityfor agents in a contact center, the callback availability being based onthe status of a current interaction queue at the contact center and theindicia of when a callback should be made; selecting an agent to be usedfor the callback, the agent being selected based on the determinedavailability; performing a callback using a session management server ata specified time and using a specified agent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor operating a callback cloud, according to one aspect.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture of acallback cloud, according to one aspect.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for offering acallback to a chat user, according to one aspect.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for handling acallback request from a chat user, according to one aspect.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for offering acallback to a chat user using a chat bot, according to one aspect.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for offering acallback to a chat user during a live chat, according to one aspect.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for selectingan agent to fulfill a callback request from a chat user, according toone aspect.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for schedulinga callback request for a chat user, according to one aspect.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for usingmultiple contact centers to fulfill a chat request from a chat user,according to one aspect.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor operating a callback cloud in connection with a chat server operatedby an enterprise, according to one aspect.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor operating a callback cloud in connection with a chat bot operatedindependently of an enterprise contact center, according to one aspect.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor operating an on-premises callback system alongside a chat serveroperated by an enterprise, according to one aspect.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 16 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, various systems andmethods for providing chat-based customer callbacks.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention,illustrating an exemplary architecture of a system 100 for providing acallback cloud service. According to the embodiment, callback cloud 101may receive requests 140 via a plurality of communications networks suchas a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 103 or the Internet 102.Such communications networks may be connected to a plurality of consumerendpoints 110 and enterprise endpoints 120 as illustrated, according tothe particular architecture of communication network involved. Exemplaryconsumer endpoints 110 may include, but are not limited to, traditionaltelephones 111, cellular telephones 112, mobile tablet computing devices113, laptop computers 114, or desktop personal computers (PC) 115. Suchdevices may be connected to respective communications networks via avariety of means, which may include telephone dialers, VOIPtelecommunications services, web browser applications, SMS textmessaging services, or other data communications services. It will beappreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art that such means ofcommunication are exemplary, and many alternative means are possible andbecoming possible in the art, any of which may be utilized as an elementof system 100 according to the invention. A PSTN 103 or the Internet 102(and it should be noted that not all alternate connections are shown forthe sake of simplicity, for example a desktop PC 126 may communicate viathe Internet 102) may be further connected to a plurality of enterpriseendpoints 120, which may comprise cellular telephones 121, telephonyswitch 122, desktop environment 125, internal Local Area Network (LAN)or Wide-Area Network (WAN) 130, and mobile devices such as tabletcomputing device 128. As illustrated, desktop environment 125 mayinclude both a telephone 127 and a desktop computer 126, which may beused as a network bridge to connect a telephony switch 122 to aninternal LAN or WAN 130, such that additional mobile devices such astablet PC 128 may utilize switch 122 to communicate with PSTN 102.Telephone 127 may be connected to switch 122 or it may be connecteddirectly to PSTN 102. It will be appreciated that the illustratedarrangement is exemplary, and a variety of arrangements that maycomprise additional devices known in the art are possible, according tothe invention. Callback cloud 101 may respond to requests 140 receivedfrom communications networks with callbacks appropriate to thetechnology utilized by such networks, such as data or Voice overInternet Protocol (VOIP) callbacks 145, 147 sent to Internet 102, ortime-division multiplexing (TDM) such as is commonly used in cellulartelephony networks such as the Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM) cellular network commonly used worldwide, or VOIP callbacks toPSTN 103. Data callbacks 147 may be performed over a variety ofInternet-enabled communications technologies, such as via e-mailmessages, application pop-ups, or Internet Relay Chat (IRC)conversations, and it will be appreciated by one having ordinary skillin the art that a wide variety of such communications technologies areavailable and may be utilized according to the invention. VOIP callbacksmay be made using either or both traditional telephony networks such asPSTN 103 or over VOIP networks such as Internet 102, due to theflexibility to the technology involved and the design of such networks.It will be appreciated that such callback methods are exemplary, andthat callbacks may be tailored to available communications technologiesaccording to the invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture1000 for operating a callback cloud 101 in connection with a chat server1001 operated by an enterprise 120, according to one aspect. Accordingto the aspect, an enterprise may deploy an on-premises chat server 1001to operate any of a number of customer-facing chat services such as (forexample, including but not limited to) SMS-based messaging via PSTN 103or IP-based chat via the Internet 102, which may in turn comprise anumber of arrangements such as web-based chat with which a customer mayinteract via a web browser (for example, on a mobile device 112, 113 orpersonal computer 114, 115), or a chat app that may be installed by acustomer on their device and used for chat interactions with theenterprise, or may provide integrated chat functionality usingpre-existing chat services or programs, such as (for example, includingbut not limited to) providing a means for customers to chat withenterprise agents via SKYPE™, FACEBOOK MESSENGER™, TELEGRAM™, WHATSAPP™,or any of a number of messaging services. A chat interaction with acustomer may be connected by chat server 1001 to an agent workstation125 so the customer may chat directly with a contact center agent, orthey may chat with automated systems such as a virtual assistant or“chat bot” operated by chat server 1001, for example to interactivelyassist with basic tasks such as requests for account information orgeneral questions. If a customer is unable to reach resolution via chatalone, they may request (or be proactively provided) a callback, whichmay then be handled according to the various methods described below(referring to FIGS. 3-9).

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture1100 for operating a callback cloud 101 in connection with a chat bot1101 operated independently of an enterprise contact center 120,according to one aspect. According to the aspect, a chat bot 1101 may beoperated by an independent vendor such as a chat service or anotherenterprise independent of a contact center 120. A chat bot 1101 mayprovide interactive, automated chat assistance for users and mayoptionally be tailored for a specific purpose, such as to assist withbilling concerns or technical support, or may be tailored to customersof a particular enterprise such as to assist customers with specificproducts or services. If a customer is unable to reach resolution viachat alone, they may request (or be proactively provided) a callback,which may then be handled according to the various methods describedbelow (referring to FIGS. 3-9), for example chat bot 1101 may connectthe customer to an enterprise 120 for further assistance.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture1200 for operating an on-premises callback system 1210 alongside a chatserver 1001 operated by an enterprise 120, according to one aspect.According to the aspect, rather than a callback cloud 101 operatingoutside an enterprise environment, an on-premises callback system 1210may be utilized such as a pre-existing automated callback scheduler(that may be already present in a contact center architecture) or alocal implementation of callback cloud features (as described below inFIG. 2). This local callback system 1210 may be used to handle customercallback requests including user-requested callbacks andproactively-offered callbacks from chat server 1001, fulfillingcallbacks and connecting customers with other endpoints 120 as needed toreach full issue resolution (for example, according to the methodsdescribed below in FIGS. 3-9).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture of acallback cloud 200, according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention. According to the embodiment, a callback cloud 200 maycomprise a plurality of front-end elements to accept incoming datarequests, such as web server 201 which may accept requests from Internet102, media server 202 which may accept requests from either Internet 102or a PSTN 103, or telephony switch 204 which may accept requests from aPSTN 103. It will be appreciated that such elements are exemplary, andadditional or alternate arrangements accepting requests from a varietyof communications networks are possible according to the invention. Datarequests may be passed from front-end services to secondary services forprocessing, such as CTI server 205, SIP server 203, or callbackapplication server 210, each of which may translate incoming requestdata for interaction with a plurality of computer services, such ascampaign manager 211 which may manage information about requestors suchas when or why an interaction should take place between two resources,interaction manager 212 which may handle matching, distribution, andqueuing of interactions with a plurality of processing parties such asagents, chatbots, or other virtual assistants or adding a request to acallback queue if a selected resource is busy, rules engine 213 whichmay receive incoming requests and apply predetermined or configurablerules to determine possible actions, such as when a callback is to beperformed, to what available contact method a callback should be made,what to do if a callback attempt fails, how to prioritize a callback ina queue, or other relevant actions, operational analysis engine 214which may work in conjunction with an intent analyzer 215 for thepurpose of handling decision-making logic such as selecting andassigning resources to handle callback requests, such that callbackswill be handled by the most relevant and capable available resource.Resource in this case may refer to an individual, a contact centeragent, an automated response application, chatbot, or other relevantparty according to the nature of the callback request and, optionally,any rules assigned to the callback during processing as describedpreviously. Callback cloud 200 may further comprise a database 220,which may collect and store requestor data and may be any of a varietyof database types, such as an SQL-based relational database ordistributed nonrelational database such as Hadoop HDB. Callback cloud200 may further comprise an integration server 216, which may connect toa plurality of enterprise applications 230. In general, switch 204 andmedia server 202 are examples of, and act as, media handling endpointsof callback cloud 200. Similarly, CTI server 205 and SIP server 203 areexamples of, and act as, signaling components that may be furthercharacterized as session management components that may be operated by asession management server (not shown) either individually or in anycombination. Operational analysis engine 214 is a software componentused to analyze operational data such as call arrival rates, callbackrequest and completion rates, availability patterns of skilledresources, interaction lengths of various kinds (channel types orskills), and so forth. Thus operational analysis engine 214 may be usedto determine an optimal time for reaching a specific person based onpatterns determined from historical data; it may be used to determinewhen (or if) to expose a callback button or link on a web page based onfor example inbound call volumes (which can be used to compute anestimate of resources that will be available in a certain period basedon an expected call arrival rate and an expected staffing level for thatperiod); or it can be used to select an optimal channel for a givencallback based on an analysis of which channels are most successful atdifferent times for the person or class of persons in question.Similarly, intent analysis engine 215 may be used to take an expressionof intent (such as, “Get me Bob Sherman”), and to analyze it todetermine whether, when, and how to connect the requester with BobSherman; such analyses may be based on a host of available dataelements, such as stated preferences of the requester, communicationscapabilities or preferences of Bob Sherman, Bob Sherman's work schedule,corporate security or availability policies, and so forth. Intentanalysis engine 215 may determine what channel to use, how many attemptsto make before signaling failure, and also what targets to use(sometimes a user will express an intent such as “get me a serviceexpert for dishwashers”, and intent analysis engine 215 may determinewhich resources may be considered for conducting a callback). Similarly,rules engine 213 may be used to store and test a plurality of rules setby default, by a specific enterprise, by a requester, or by the system,in order for example to determine using conventional rules-basedtechniques whether a callback is in fact authorized, or whether it mustbe scheduled for a later time, and so forth. In some embodiments, one ormore instances of rules engine 213, operational analysis engine 214, andintent analyzer 215 may reside and operate on a single machine or evenas a single executable program; the three components are shownseparately in FIG. 2 and elsewhere in order to highlight their variouslogical functions within callback clouds of the invention.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Aspects

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 300 foroffering a callback to a chat user, according to one aspect. In aninitial step 301, an interactive prompt may be transmitted to a chatsession such as (for example, including but not limited to) a live chatsession between a customer and a contact center agent, or a sessionbetween a user and a chat bot. The chat session itself may be operatedby a chat server 1001 of the enterprise offering the callback prompt, orit may be an external chat service or application. In a next step 302, acallback request may be received from the user in response to theprompt, confirming the need for a callback to escalate the interactionfrom the chat to a live call with an agent. In a next step 303,availability may be checked for a plurality of contact center resources,which may include various automated systems such as an IVR or virtualassistant, or contact center agents that may handle customerinteractions (for the sake of brevity, reference may be made to contactcenter agents but it should be understood that any interaction-capableresource may be utilized in place of a live agent according to variousaspects of the invention). In a next step 304, an available contactcenter resource may be selected to handle the requested callback, andthen 305 the callback may be initiated.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 400 forhandling a callback request from a chat user, according to one aspect.In an initial step 401, a user may begin a chat with a live agent or achat bot, for example either a bot operated by a contact center chatserver 1001 or an independent third-party chat bot product or service1101 that may be either general-purpose or specialized and mayoptionally be tailored specifically to provide chat support on behalf ofa contact center. In a next step 402 the user may request a callback,for example if the chat session has been unable to resolve theirconcerns or to reach an appropriate support channel for an issue outsidethe scope of the agent or bot handling the chat session. In a next step403, the user may be presented with a callback prompt to collectnecessary information 404 for fulfilling the callback, such as theircontact information or callback preferences such as (for example,including but not limited to) when they wish to be called back orspecifying their preferred language. After the user submits the neededinformation 404, they may then be called back 405 in accordance with theprovided details (for example, calling them on the phone number theyprovided, at the time they requested, in the language they specified).

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 500 foroffering a callback to a chat user using a chat bot, according to oneaspect. In an initial step 501, a user may interact with a chat botoperated either by a contact center chat server 1001 or an independentchat product or service 1101. During the chat session, the bot maydetermine that a callback is appropriate 502, for example if the userindicates that their issue is outside the scope of the bot'scapabilities or if the conversation with the user indicates that anescalation is required (for example, escalation may be triggered by anumber of configurable parameters and using various approaches such askeyword spotting or natural language processing to determine thesentiment of the user). The bot may then 503 offer a callback prompt tothe user, and if the user accepts 504 they may provide any necessarycallback details such as contact information or preferences. The usermay then be called back 505 in accordance with any provided preferences,so they may speak to a live agent to continue the interaction.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 600 foroffering a callback to a chat user during a live chat, according to oneaspect. In an initial step 601, a user may engage a contact center agentvia chat, for example using a chat app or service provided by a contactcenter chat server 1001. During the chat, the agent may offer a callbackto the user 602, for example to connect the user with the appropriatedepartment to handle their concern or to handle specific issues that maynot be possible via chat (for example, for security purposes a call maybe required for specific issues such as to request the user's personalinformation or for voice confirmation of a user's identity). If the useraccepts 603 they may then provide any necessary callback details such ascontact information or preferences, and then the agent may call the user604 or when appropriate (for example, to connect the user to anotherdepartment) they may send the callback information to another agent forproper handling 605.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 700 forselecting an agent to fulfill a callback request from a chat user,according to one aspect. In an initial step 701, a contact center mayreceive a callback request from a chat session, which may be either auser-requested callback or a callback that was offered to a customer(and accepted) by an agent or chatbot. The contact center may then checkfor agent availability 702 to handle the callback, taking intoconsideration any relevant preferences included in the callback requestsuch as (for example, including but not limited to) the reason for thecallback, the customer's preferred language, or a specific requestedtime for callback. The contact center may then select an appropriateagent 703 based on the callback requirements, and provide the callbackdetails to the agent 704 so they may handle the interaction. When theagent becomes available within the desired callback scheduling window(which may be “immediately” or at a future-dated time), a sessionmanager 212 may then initiate the callback 705 and connect the agent andcustomer.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 800 forscheduling a callback request for a chat user, according to one aspect.In an initial step 801, a contact center may receive a callback requestfrom a user in a chat session with a live agent or a chat bot, forexample either a bot operated by a contact center chat server 1001 or anindependent third-party chat bot product or service 1101 that may beeither general-purpose or specialized and may optionally be tailoredspecifically to provide chat support on behalf of a contact center. Thecontact center may check for agent availability 802 to handle therequested callback, and if no agents are available 803, the contactcenter may respond by presenting the user with a plurality of alternatetimes to schedule a callback, selected from anticipated future agentavailability. The user may then select a time to be called back 804,which the contact center may then send to an agent 805 along with anyadditional callback details such as the user's contact information orpreferences, and the callback may then be initiated 806 at the futuretime when the agent becomes available.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 900 for usingmultiple contact centers to fulfill a chat request from a chat user,according to one aspect. In an initial step 901, a contact center mayreceive a callback request from a user in a chat session with a liveagent or a chat bot, for example either a bot operated by a contactcenter chat server 1001 or an independent third-party chat bot productor service 1101 that may be either general-purpose or specialized andmay optionally be tailored specifically to provide chat support onbehalf of a contact center. The contact center may check for agentavailability 902 to handle the requested callback, and if no agents areavailable 903, the contact center may then notify a session managementserver of a callback system (either on-premises or cloud-based, asdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1-2 and FIG. 10), which maybegin querying additional contact centers in a multi-tenant arrangement.If an available agent is found at any of the contact centers 904, thecallback may be provided to that contact center for proper handlingaccording to the methods described above (referring to FIGS. 3-8), andif no agent is found at any contact center 905, the session managementserver may schedule a future callback as described previously in FIG. 8.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one aspect, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one aspect, a computing device 10 may be configuredor designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12, localmemory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In at least oneaspect, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of the differenttypes of functions and/or operations under the control of softwaremodules or components, which for example, may include an operatingsystem and any appropriate applications software, drivers, and the like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some aspects, processors 13 may include speciallydesigned hardware such as application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a particular aspect, alocal memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and/orread-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levels ofcached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one aspect, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity AN hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 13 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe aspects described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one aspect, a single processor 13 handles communications aswell as routing computations, while in other aspects a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In various aspects,different types of features or functionalities may be implemented in asystem according to the aspect that includes a client device (such as atablet device or smartphone running client software) and server systems(such as a server system described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of an aspect mayemploy one or more memories or memory modules (such as, for example,remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured to store data,program instructions for the general-purpose network operations, orother information relating to the functionality of the aspects describedherein (or any combinations of the above). Program instructions maycontrol execution of or comprise an operating system and/or one or moreapplications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11, 16 may also beconfigured to store data structures, configuration data, encryptiondata, historical system operations information, or any other specific orgeneric non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device aspects may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a JAVA™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a standalone computingsystem. Referring now to FIG. 14, there is shown a block diagramdepicting a typical exemplary architecture of one or more aspects orcomponents thereof on a standalone computing system. Computing device 20includes processors 21 that may run software that carry out one or morefunctions or applications of aspects, such as for example a clientapplication 24. Processors 21 may carry out computing instructions undercontrol of an operating system 22 such as, for example, a version ofMICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE macOS™ or iOS™ operatingsystems, some variety of the Linux operating system, ANDROID™ operatingsystem, or the like. In many cases, one or more shared services 23 maybe operable in system 20, and may be useful for providing commonservices to client applications 24. Services 23 may for example beWINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linux environment, orany other type of common service architecture used with operating system21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable for receiving userinput, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen, microphone (forexample, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball, or anycombination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any type suitable forproviding output to one or more users, whether remote or local to system20, and may include for example one or more screens for visual output,speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25 may berandom-access memory having any structure and architecture known in theart, for use by processors 21, for example to run software. Storagedevices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor, orelectrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (such asthose described above, referring to FIG. 13). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some aspects, systems may be implemented on a distributed computingnetwork, such as one having any number of clients and/or servers.Referring now to FIG. 15, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary architecture 30 for implementing at least a portion of asystem according to one aspect on a distributed computing network.According to the aspect, any number of clients 33 may be provided. Eachclient 33 may run software for implementing client-side portions of asystem; clients may comprise a system 20 such as that illustrated inFIG. 14. In addition, any number of servers 32 may be provided forhandling requests received from one or more clients 33. Clients 33 andservers 32 may communicate with one another via one or more electronicnetworks 31, which may be in various aspects any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the aspect does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 31 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some aspects, servers 32 may call external services 37when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer to additionaldata concerning a particular call. Communications with external services37 may take place, for example, via one or more networks 31. In variousaspects, external services 37 may comprise web-enabled services orfunctionality related to or installed on the hardware device itself. Forexample, in one aspect where client applications 24 are implemented on asmartphone or other electronic device, client applications 24 may obtaininformation stored in a server system 32 in the cloud or on an externalservice 37 deployed on one or more of a particular enterprise's oruser's premises.

In some aspects, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both) may make use of oneor more specialized services or appliances that may be deployed locallyor remotely across one or more networks 31. For example, one or moredatabases 34 may be used or referred to by one or more aspects. Itshould be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art thatdatabases 34 may be arranged in a wide variety of architectures andusing a wide variety of data access and manipulation means. For example,in various aspects one or more databases 34 may comprise a relationaldatabase system using a structured query language (SQL), while othersmay comprise an alternative data storage technology such as thosereferred to in the art as “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™,GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and so forth). In some aspects, variant databasearchitectures such as column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,clustered databases, distributed databases, or even flat file datarepositories may be used according to the aspect. It will be appreciatedby one having ordinary skill in the art that any combination of known orfuture database technologies may be used as appropriate, unless aspecific database technology or a specific arrangement of components isspecified for a particular aspect described herein. Moreover, it shouldbe appreciated that the term “database” as used herein may refer to aphysical database machine, a cluster of machines acting as a singledatabase system, or a logical database within an overall databasemanagement system. Unless a specific meaning is specified for a givenuse of the term “database”, it should be construed to mean any of thesesenses of the word, all of which are understood as a plain meaning ofthe term “database” by those having ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, some aspects may make use of one or more security systems 36and configuration systems 35. Security and configuration management arecommon information technology (IT) and web functions, and some amount ofeach are generally associated with any IT or web systems. It should beunderstood by one having ordinary skill in the art that anyconfiguration or security subsystems known in the art now or in thefuture may be used in conjunction with aspects without limitation,unless a specific security 36 or configuration system 35 or approach isspecifically required by the description of any specific aspect.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various aspects, functionality for implementing systems or methods ofvarious aspects may be distributed among any number of client and/orserver components. For example, various software modules may beimplemented for performing various functions in connection with thesystem of any particular aspect, and such modules may be variouslyimplemented to run on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various aspects described above. Accordingly, the present inventionis defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing chat-based customercallbacks, comprising: a callback application server comprising at leasta processor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructionsstored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein theprogramming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause theprocessor to: transmit an interactive prompt to a chat session, theprompt comprising an option for a user to request a callback; receive acallback request from the chat session, the callback request comprisingat least an indicia of a specific callback provider from whom a callbackis requested, the callback request further comprising an indicia of whena callback should be made; and direct the callback request to aninteraction manager; and an interaction manager comprising at least aprocessor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructions storedin the memory and operating on the processor, wherein the programminginstructions, when operating on the processor, cause the processor to:determine callback availability for agents in a contact center, thecallback availability being based on the status of a current interactionqueue at the contact center and the indicia of when a callback should bemade; select an agent to be used for the callback, the agent beingselected based on the determined availability; and direct a sessionmanagement server to initiate a callback; and a session managementserver comprising at least a processor, a memory, and a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operating on theprocessor, wherein the programming instructions, when operating on theprocessor, cause the processor to: perform a callback at a specifiedtime and using a specified agent.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theinteractive prompt comprises a link to a callback request form.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the interactive prompt comprises an option toselect a desired callback time from a list of available callback times,the list of available callback times being based at least in part on thedetermined callback availability.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein thecallback request comprises customer contact information.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the chat session comprises a virtual assistantservice.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the virtual assistant is achat bot.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat session comprises ahuman contact center agent.
 8. A method for providing chat-basedcustomer callbacks, comprising the steps of: transmitting, using acallback application server, an interactive prompt to a chat session,the interactive prompt comprising an option to request a callback;receiving a callback request from the chat session, the callback requestcomprising an indicia of when a callback should be made; determining,using an interaction manager, callback availability for agents in acontact center, the callback availability being based on the status of acurrent interaction queue at the contact center and the indicia of whena callback should be made; selecting an agent to be used for thecallback, the agent being selected based on the determined availability;and performing a callback using a session management server at aspecified time and using a specified agent.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the interactive prompt comprises a link to a callback requestform.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the interactive promptcomprises an option to select a desired callback time from a list ofavailable callback times, the list of available callback times beingbased at least in part on the determined callback availability.
 11. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the callback request comprises customercontact information.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the chat sessioncomprises a virtual assistant service.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the virtual assistant is a chat bot.
 14. The method of claim 8,wherein the chat session comprises a human contact center agent.